In February 2010, CEOs representing America’s renewable energy industries announced a major new study showing that a 25% by 2025 national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) would result in hundreds of thousands of new American jobs and prevent a near-term collapse in some industries.
The Jobs Impact of a National Renewable Electricity Standard study, conducted by Navigant found that a 25% by 2025 national RES would result in 274,000 more renewable energy jobs over no-national RES policy. This additional employment is equivalent to 2.36 million additional job-years by 2025. The study found that new jobs would be supported by renewable energy in every region of the United States and that the biomass, hydropower and waste-to-energy industries, in particular, would see significant job gains in the Southeast. Without stronger near-term targets than currently envisioned, the study found that industries like wind will experience flat job growth and long-term stagnation, while the U.S. biomass industry could collapse altogether. The RES Alliance recommended raising near-term RES targets in federal legislation to 12% in 2014 and 20% in 2020.